Is Online Counseling Right For You?

Telemedicine is a growing field with the evolution of technology….find out below how you can utilize it to receive the counseling you may need!

Did you know that one in five American adults are diagnosed with a mental health illness each year? That’s up to 43.8 million Americans who experience some sort of behavioral health crisis. Something that is even more noteworthy, is that more than half of them don’t receive adequate treatment.

Mental health is this incredibly taboo topic in the U.S. mainly because almost no one wants to talk about their mental state and well being. As a result, treatment rates are low and many people fly under the radar without getting the help that they so desperately need. In other words, sadly, there is a huge mental healthcare gap in our country.

One of the causes of this is lack of access to quality care due to shortages of mental health care providers and treatment facilities. On the other hand, even if these resources did exist, many low-resource individuals or those living in remote areas can’t access them.

Not only are there shortages and barriers to accessing care, but the fear of social stigma prevents many people from seeking treatment. It’s common for people to feel a sense of shame when dealing with mental health problems, and there is lasting stigma that can remain with patients that can often discourage them from reaching out for help.

This is where telemedicine comes into play – telemedicine can remove structural barriers and the stigma so that people are more willing to receive the counseling they may need.

Telemedicine gives the opportunity to dramatically improve access to quality care by lowering some of the barriers like location, lack of transportation, and busy schedules. Patients who live in rural areas, are unable to leave their homes, or are just too busy to make time for mental health care in their schedules, now have a much more convenient option for receiving care and an easier way to reach out for it. For example, with telemedicine, a therapist in a high-density urban area could communicate with a patient living far away in a rural shortage area which opens up many more ways to receive care.

As far as combating the stigma associated with receiving mental health treatment, telemedicine can eliminate some of the negative stigmas and encourage people to seek help by providing patients with more privacy protection because with telemedicine, appointments can be held from anywhere with internet access, including the comfort of one’s own home. Counselors can be found within minutes, and therapy can begin as early as that day.

If you’re on the fence about reaching out for help or some of these barriers have held you back, check out online counseling to learn more today!

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Disclaimer

This website is 100% my ideas, thoughts, and opinions about medicine, college, and life! Posts on this page should in no way be taken as professional advice and are not associated with any specific academic institution or hospital system! Thanks so much for reading, love you guys <3